Picture Book Month - Last but Not Least - Day 30!

Well I actually did it!  I highlighted 1 of my favorite picture book authors for every day of Picture Book Month.  I hope that readers have rediscovered some favorites or found a new author to read. 

I saved a very special picture book author for Day 30 - Easton's very own Leo Landry!  We are so lucky to have a wonderful children's author residing in our town.  Mr. Landry has visited the library on several occasions to talk about his books, read to the children, or teach them how to create an illustration.  He has written and illustrated picture books, as well as chapter books and early readers.  I want to highlight on of each in this blog.

Grin and Bear It is his most recently published work.  It is an early reader that tells a wonderful story about a bear who loves telling jokes, but has a bad case of stage fright.  We were lucky to have Leo Landry host an open-mic comedy event for children in October.  Children listened to the story and then got a chance to stand up and tell a joke of their own.  The book is a great early reader as the children will love the jokes and the story of a warm friendship while parent swill appreciate the visual puns in the illustrations. 

Space Boy is a wonderful picture book about a little boy who longs for quiet - so he builds a rocket and flies to the moon.  Leo Landry's pencil and watercolor illustrations add to the sense of quiet and adventure.  This is a perfect bedtime story.

Finally, I must spotlight Sea Surprise, a great chapter book that got my reluctant reader of a daughter hooked on books as a 2nd grader.  She just fell in love with this wonderful story about a group of friends - a mermaid, a shark and an eel - under the sea.  The vocabulary is just right for those moving beyond the early readers and the illustrations are beautiful and full of fun.

So, if you haven't yet discovered out very own children's author and illustrator - stop by the library and find a Leo Landry book today!

Thanks for reading!  I was so happy to be able to talk about 30 of my favorite picture books authors.  I know there are many more that I was unable to include and I know I'll be finding more favorites in the future. Picture books are such a wonderful genre for children.  I know that the future is bright. In honor of Picture Book Month, I'd like to include this list of favorites from Leo Landry's website (http://www.leolandry.com/index.html) :

"There are so many artists whose work I continue to be inspired by every day. Here are a few of my all-time favorites: Melissa Sweet, M.B. Goffstein, Helen Oxenbury, John Burningham, Kady MacDonald Denton, Erik Blegvad, Peter Sis, Lucy Cousins, Charlotte Voake, Satoshi Kitamura, Emma Chichester Clark, Olof and Lena Landstrom, Richard Scarry, Edward Ardizzone, Simon James, and William Steig."

Picture Book Month - Day 27, 28, 29

Wow!  I know we are now in December, but I still have 4 more authors to highlight in order to meet my goal of one author per day during Picture Book Month.  So many authors, so few spots left!  Today I'd like to spotlight 3 authors, Eric Carle, Doreen Cronin and Lauren Child.

Eric Carle is an award winning picture book author/illustrator.  He was the 2003 recipient of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award which honor an author and or illustrator whose body of work over the years has made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children."  His beautiful illustrations are made using hand-painted paper, layered in a collage technique.  Many of his works feature special cut-outs (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), sounds (The Very Quiet Cricket),  foldouts (Papa, Please get the Moon for Me) or even lighting effects (Dream Snow).  His newest title is The Artist Who painted a Blue Horse. It is a story that celebrates the freedom of the artist to paint things as he sees them, even a blue horse or a green lion.

We are very fortunate that we have The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art here in Amherst Massachusetts.  As he states on his website (http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html) :

For a number of years my wife Bobbie and I dreamt about creating a place where original picture book art could be enjoyed and appreciated. It has been said that picture books are an introduction to literature for the very young reader. We wanted to help build a museum that would be the same thing for the first time museum visitor: an introduction to the experience of looking at art.

I hope you get a chance to visit  his books and or the museum with your children!

Doreen Cronin published her first picture book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type while working as a practising attorney in Manhattan- luckily for children's literature she left the law and has been writing picture books ever since! What I love about her books is the humor. Click, Clack Moo, received a Caldecott Honor in 2001.  This is a wonderful book that can be used to teach children about the power of the written word - as well as being laugh out loud hilarious!  Farmer Brown discovers that his cows can type.  Not only that, but they begin to make demands. "It was bad enough the cows had found the old typewriter in the barn, now they wanted electric blankets! 'No way," said Farmer Brown...So the cows went on strike."  Children love repeating the refrain: "Click, Clack, moo."  The barnyard hijinks continue in several more books featuring the typing cows.  I also love her series of insect diary books.  In Diary of a Worm , They are full of dry humor and Henry Bliss' illustrations add to the fun.  Here's one entry: "April 20  I snuck up on some kids in the park today.  They didn't hear me coming. I wriggled up right between them and they SCREAMED. I love when they do that."  You can also read Diary of a Spider and Diary of a Fly.  Check out this wonderful author today!

 



My 3rd author of the day is Lauren Child (http://www.milkmonitor.com/home/).  She is probably best known for her Charlie and Lola picture book series, which has been made into a successful television series for Disney.  Her first Charlie and Lola book, I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato, won a Kate Greenaway Medal in the U.K. for outstanding children's book illustration in 2000.  This is comparable to the Caldecott Medal in the U.S.  The series features the adorable, imaginative and demanding Lola and her patient older brother Charlie, as well as Lola's invisible friend Soren Lorenson.  I love Lola's spirit and Charlie's love for his little sister.  Each book begins: "I have this little sister, Lola.  She is small and very funny."  In my daughter's favorite Charlie and Lola book, I Am Too Absolutely Small for School, Charlie tries to reassure a nervous Lola, that school will be wonderful.  For instance Charlie says: "I say, 'At school you will learn numbers and how to count up to one hundred.' Lola says, 'I don't need to learn up to ne hundred.  I already know up to ten, and that is plenty."  Also be sure to check out another favorite, Lauren Child's The Princess and the Pea.  In a collaboration with photographer Polly Borland, Child constructed miniature  3-D sets for each page in illustration in the book.  Imagine a dollhouse with paper doll characters.  I look forward to many more of Lauren Child's picture books!